


Infinity and a Day

by ukulelekatie



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:05:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7034938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ukulelekatie/pseuds/ukulelekatie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When soulmates meet, numbers appear on their wrists, indicating how many days they’ll get to spend with each other until one leaves the other’s life for good. Laura has dreaded finding her soulmate ever since her parents ran out of time. Carmilla has given up on finding her soulmate after centuries of heartbreak. But what happens when one soulmate is immortal? When a strange infinity symbol appears on each of their wrists, they learn that their lives are about to change forever...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Infinity and a Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on an [anonymous prompt](http://ukulelekatie.tumblr.com/post/144305383151/hollstein-soulmate-au-where-numbers-appear-on-your) I received a few weeks ago, and I just had to write it! Special thanks to my incredible betas, [biomajorlafontaine](http://biomajorlafontaine.tumblr.com) and [monicaoakwood](http://monicaoakwood.tumblr.com), and thanks to everyone who encouraged me to write my first fic.

 

Laura had never wanted a soulmate. The pain she’d seen in her father’s eyes every day until she was eight years old was enough to make her resent even the idea of having one. It was awful. Her parents were just out of university when they met each other. At the time, Laura’s mother was working at a coffee shop, and her father, a hopeless romantic, had been admiring her her from afar. When he finally built up the courage to ask her out on a date, they noticed the spark between them immediately. The marks that appeared on their wrists that night as they walked hand in hand through the city at dusk confirmed their hopes: they were soulmates.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly a happily ever after for the two of them. They had taught Laura from a very young age that receiving a soul mark was a bittersweet occasion. The day she learned the truth about them would remain with her forever. After her relentless questioning could no longer be satisfied by a simple “You’ll understand when you’re older, darling,” her parents sat her down and explained that what she had been pestering them about ever since she noticed the strange, matching numerals on her parents.

She learned that when someone meets their soulmate, a number appears on one of their wrists, and an identical mark appears on their soulmate's wrist on the opposite side. The number will indicate how many days they’ll get to spend with each other, until one leaves the other’s life for good. The scary thing was that there’s no way of knowing which person would be the one to die. Thus, those who had the good fortune of finding their soulmate were also granted a curse to go along with such a blessing.

Laura’s parents had been granted only 4,162 days together. When she asked your father how many days were left, he refused to answer. Instead, he made her promise to cherish the days she’ll be given with your soulmate, whoever that special person might be. She agreed, although she was frightened by her father’s unwillingness to answer her question. The next few years were filled with nothing but love and warmth from both her parents, and her anxieties subsided for a while.

But one day, she noticed something wasn’t right. Her parents grew tense; it wasn’t completely noticeable at first, but she could sense the change, no matter how small it was. She never understood why, though, and she was much too scared to ask them. Until one day her mother never came home from work. Just disappeared without a trace. When she saw how broken her father looked, everything clicked into place. Her parents’ time together was over. They had reached the last day. Her mother was gone forever. That was the day she began to resent the idea of ever getting her soul mark. The thought of one ever appearing on her wrist made her feel sick.

Of course, the concept of soulmates was virtually unavoidable, especially when she reached her teen years, where the likelihood of soulmates meeting each other was higher than ever. It seemed as though every book and movie portrayed the same boring soulmate story over and over again. Soulmate gossip spread like wildfire through the halls of Laura’s middle school. Magazine covers were plastered with ridiculous headlines like _15 Hot Tips for Finding Your Soulmate_ and _You’ll Never Guess Which Celeb’s Soul Mark is Fake!_ Laura even dreaded the holidays and family reunions, knowing that some distant relative was bound to ask the question she despised to hear.

University didn’t exactly help ease her discomfort on the concepts of soulmates. People were constantly meeting their soulmates there. The fraternity Zeta Omega Mu even hosted a huge party each semester called  “Soulmate Speed Date” where students could attend in hopes of finding their match. Some dude with big puppy eyes stopped her on her way to class one day and eagerly handed her a flyer for the party, but she tossed it in the recycling bin as soon as he was out of eyesight. She doubted her soulmate would be the kind of person to attend outrageous frat events anyway.

The university was full of couples walking through campus with hands interlocked, sporting identical numbers. She occasionally saw groups of three people pass by, adorned with a number for each of their soulmates. Some of the people she met at university knew their soulmates before they even began school. The first friends Laura made since starting Silas, Perry and Lafontaine, had been matched for nearly their entire life. She never did the math, but their number was high enough for her to know that they’ll be spending the rest of their lives together. It was sweet the way things just clicked for the two of them.

Her roommate, Betty, had recently found her soulmate while on vacation in London, and had decided to transfer schools to be closer to him. _A “replacement” roommate would be arriving any day now, and Laura hoped to get along with her just as well as she got along with Betty. She’d miss her old roommate, but she understood why she was leaving. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with her newfound love._

Knowing that her friends were happy with their soulmates gave Laura a bit of assurance that having one wasn’t always a torturous experience like it had been for her father. Still, she dreaded the idea of it ever happening to herself. There would be no guarantee that it wouldn’t turn out like her parents.

∞

The new semester had just begun, and fortunately, Laura had been having no trouble with her classes so far. She’d been especially enjoying her Lit class, and found herself admiring the TA, a lanky redhead named Danny. She silently reminded herself to check Danny’s wrists for any soul marks next time she saw her. “Investigative Journalism” also proved to be an intriguing course. The professor was extremely engaging and Laura was eager to start working on her project, for which she’d decided to investigate an old campus legend some upperclassmen told her during orientation about freshman girls going missing every twenty years or so.

Part of her thought it was just a spooky story meant to scare the first years, but she never could resist a good mystery, fictional or not. Besides, she figured she might even uncover something scandalous if she was lucky. There had got to be some deep dark secret waiting to be found there.

She returned to her room, sat down at her desk, and began to do some research when she heard the door open. A young woman entered the room as she turned around. She seemed to be about Laura’s age, maybe a bit older. Her dark hair fell to about her shoulders in thick waves. She was clad in a black t-shirt depicting some obscure metal band, tight leather pants, and a pair of combat boots.

“Hey,” she said.

Laura was fairly irritated by the fact that she didn’t even knock before entering, but some of that annoyance has been pushed aside by a new thought that took over her mind—she’s hot _._ Those leather pants hugged her curves in all the right places. Still, Laura was pissed off at her lack of common courtesy.

“Um, excuse me, but who the hell are you?”

“Carmilla. I’m your new roommate _sweetheart_ ,” she replied in an almost sultry tone. She dropped her duffel bag—a very large duffel bag that was probably several times her own weight—onto the bed beside Laura’s and turned on the stereo to some obnoxious punk rock music. Laura could already tell that the two of them would not be getting along.

“Can you please turn that down? I’m trying to work.”

Carmilla slinked over to the desk and stared over Laura’s shoulder. “What are you working on?”

“That’s none of your business,” She snapped.

She saw out of the corner of her eye that Carmilla was reaching for her notebook, she had tried to grab it before the other girl did, but it was too late.

Carmilla smirked. “Investigative journalism, huh? That’s cute. Well let me tell you, you’re not going to find anything interesting in this hell hole of a university. So the sooner you stop playing Lois Lane, the better.”

“Look, if we’re going to be roommates, I’m going to need you to respect my personal space. Now will you please turn down that awful music before I call the floor don?”

Laura knew that probably won’t help much, but she had to hold her ground.

“Whatever, cupcake.” The sound of the music was replaced by the sound of bedsprings squeaking as Laura’s roommate flopped down onto her mattress, a smug smile on her face.

Did that girl seriously just call Laura “Cupcake”? Laura ran her fingers through her hair, not sure if she was frustrated by her rudeness or by something else entirely.

It wasn’t until later that night when Laura was about to fall asleep that she noticed a strange mark on her inner right wrist. The lights were already out and it was too dark to read the number clearly, but something was definitely there. Her heart started rushing and her head began to spin. She was too scared to look at it in the light.

She figured maybe she must have met her soulmate in one of her lectures. She thought back to her classes that day, trying to remember if anyone stood out to her. Maybe it was Laura’s cute Lit TA. But the one question nagging her was: _How many days?_

Pushing the covers onto the floor, she rushed to the bathroom and turn the light on. she looked down at her right wrist and couldn’t believe her eyes. It wasn’t a number, it’s an _infinity symbol._

Laura had no idea what this meant and she wanted to scream, but decided against it since she don’t want Carmilla to hear her. Maybe it was really a number 8, but it was sideways? God, what kind of horrible fate would that be, to have only eight days with her soulmate? She probably wouldn’t even be able to figure out who it was in eight days. Maybe she was just broken. Maybe the universe was playing some sick joke on her.

She stormed out of the bathroom and threw herself onto her bed. She didn’t have time to think about it, and she certainly didn’t want others to know. Maybe the pharmacy sold some kind of cream she could use to conceal the mark. Until then, though, it looked like she would be wearing long sleeves for the foreseeable future.

Things just got weirder from there. The next morning, Laura’s breakfast was ruined by what Carmilla deemed to be “just a prank.” However Laura thought replacing a container of soymilk with supposedly fake blood counted as much more than a harmless practical joke (and she was still not totally convinced that it _wasn’t_ real blood).

Carmilla had only been her roommate for a little more than 24 hours, but living with her was already proving to be a challenge. She was practically nocturnal, never cleaned up after herself, and didn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space. Laura was still horrified that she casually walked into the bathroom _while she was showering_ to change her tampon. When Laura griped to her friends about her roommate’s odd habits, Laf made some joking remark about Carmilla being a vampire. It didn’t make Laura laugh.

∞

Four whole days had passed now since Laura received her soul mark, and her quest to find her match had been fruitless so far—that was, until she remembered the way Danny had smiled at her on her way out of the lecture hall that day.

“What’s up, Hollis?” Danny greeted Laura as she settled into the chair across from her table at the library. Her hands were resting on the table and her smile widened when Laura pulled out her notebook.

“Hey, Danny! I was actually wondering if you could help me with the latest assignment. I’ve been having some trouble analyzing these excerpts,” Laura replied, which was a total lie; the coursework was actually extremely easy for her. The real reason she’d contacted her TA had nothing to do with analyzing literature, and everything to do with sneaking a peek at her wrists.

“Okay, let’s start by reviewing yesterday’s lecture,” Danny began her long spiel on gothic literature. Laura had hoped that she’d start moving her hands while she talked, but she didn’t seem to be very expressive with hand gestures. It was proving to be more challenging than Laura had expected. Every once in awhile, she gave her a nod to feign interest in what Danny was saying, but by the time she got to the part about Le Fanu, Laura was barely paying attention. She had got to think of a way to get Danny to move her hands so that she revealed the undersides of her wrists.

‘Come on, Hollis. Think!’ At that point, Laura wouldn’t be surprised if it was her. She can’t deny that she’s good looking, after all….

“Are you even paying attention?” Danny asked, causing Laura to snap out of her daydreaming.

“Oh, uh, yeah! That helped a lot, thank you so much!” Laura gave her an awkward smile. “Hey, can you take a look at my notes? I just want to make sure I got all that.”

“Of course,” Danny says. She reached out for Laura’s notepad, but moved too quickly for her to catch a glimpse of her wrists. That was probably her last chance, and she blew it.

“Great notes, Laura! Looks like you’re all set,” Danny slid the notebook back to Laura, once again with her palms facing down.

“Thanks again, Danny! You were a big help. Take care,” She said.

Laura grabbed her things and begin to turn around when she noticed Danny stretching her arms above her head. When she saw Laura staring, Danny gave her a small wave. She waved back, trying to hide her disappointment. Danny’s wrists were blank.

∞

The lights were already off when Laura returned to her room, which was good because she was in dire need of a nap. She flopped down onto her bed and rubbed her temples, reflecting on the disaster that was Danny’s office hours. All that effort for nothing. Laura wasn't any closer to finding out who else had been cursed with an infinity symbol.

Suddenly, the bed on the other side of the room creaked as Carmilla rolled over and grunted. Laura must have woken her up in the midst of her frustration.

“What’s got you down, cupcake?” She asked, her voice heavy from sleep.

“It’s nothing,” Laura said with a sigh.

Laura still didn’t feel like filling her in on the whole infinity mark debacle. Laf and Perry didn’t even know yet. Heck, she hadn't even told her father.

“You sure you’re alright, sweetheart?”

Laura really couldn’t stand her prying, especially with those awful nicknames. “Yes, I’m sure! Look, I don’t need you snooping around in my love life.” Whoops. Laura didn’t mean to say that last part out loud.

“Oh, so this is soulmate related,” she said. There was a hesitant quality in her voice. “Tell me, creampuff. Who’s the lucky guy? Or is it a lucky lady?” Her voice dropped, and Laura was sure that if the lights were on that she would have been able to see Carmilla winking or biting her lip or something inappropriately flirty.

“I wouldn’t know, I haven’t figured out who it is yet,” Laura huffed.

“Ah."

“Yep… how about you?” She might as well ask; Laura barely know anything about her.

“Well, I have to keep some of my secrets, don’t I? Otherwise I’ll lose my air of mystery.”

Laura could practically hear the smirk on her face as she said it.

“Whatever.”

“Sweet dreams, cutie,” Carmilla purred and rolled over again so that her back was facing Laura.

It had been too dark to notice before, but now that her eyes have adjusted to the lack of lighting, she could see Carmilla clutching something yellow. Sure enough, Laura’s favorite pillow was missing from her bed. ‘Ugh. She’s such a freak.’

∞

It had been nearly a week, and she still hadn’t made any breakthroughs in finding her soulmate, nor had she figured out the meaning of the strange symbol. A simple google search yielded no results other than the plots for ridiculous teen romance novels.

And then there was Carmilla. Ever since she caught Carmilla with her pillow, she’d been acting strange—stranger than usual, anyway. Her attitude, while still very prominent, had mellowed out into something a little less cocky and a little more of something else that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. The best way to describe it was that she’d somehow become softer _,_ and Laura had to admit, it was kind of endearing. The two of them had even been talking more often, usually before Laura was about to fall asleep. She still hadn’t learned much about her roommate, but she had grown to enjoy those new late-night conversations.

One night, when Carmilla had seen Laura tossing and turning after a nightmare, she offered to get Laura something to help her sleep. She appreciated it, as weird as it may have been. It seemed as though her broody personality was merely a facade that she kept up with her leather cuff bracelets and combat boots.

The following day, she was waiting in the room with what looks like a dried up bat wing and some feathers tied to a string.

“I got you something to help you sleep,” she said. Laura could see a shy smile play across her lips, and there was something in her eyes that looks almost like she was... flirting? Probably not.

“Is that a dried up bat wing?” Laura asked

“Yeah, it’s a charm or whatever. To help with the bad dreams.”

Charms? Laura wasn’t sure what she had been expecting when Carmilla made the offer a few nights ago, but it certainly wasn't this. This was becoming way too supernatural for her liking, and it was kind of scaring her.

“You’re supposed to put it on your wrist,” She continued, holding out the leathery wing and gesturing for Laura to hold out her hand.

Oh no. If she did that, she would see the mark. Laura squirmed in her seat and tried to come up with an excuse.

“Uh... the nightmares have stopped actually! Thanks though. Holy hufflepuff, I’m late for a class.” Laura grabbed her backpack and ran out of the room.

“If you didn’t like it you could have just said so,” she called after her.

Laura felt kind of bad, and she told herself to apologize to her later. As creepy as it was, the bat wing was a nice gesture.

∞

Things got even stranger from there. The following day, she went to the library to see if she could find any information for her journalism project. Her past attempts to find anything related to her project were unsuccessful, but that time, she thought she was headed in the right direction.

Earlier, after Laf grew tired of Laura whining about her research problems, they dragged her into the back of the library and introduced her to a young man named J.P. Armitage. She learned that J.P. was one of Silas’ library historians, and that he had access to student records dating back to the founding of the university. Despite his protests that letting an unauthorized student see the archives was strictly prohibited, Laf eventually cajoled him into letting her take a look at them.

In the midst of searching through old university records, she stumbled upon some old photographs. At first glance, they seemed to be of little use to her project, but one photograph caught her eye. Dated 1954, it showed a group of young women standing side by side. Laura’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw that the girl on the right beared a striking resemblance to Carmilla.

She flipped the photograph over to find some handwriting scrawled onto the back. Sure enough, the girl she was staring at was named Mircalla Karnstein. She could have been a grandmother or a great aunt. Laura didn’t think much of it until she continued to search through the records and found a photograph of another young woman named Arcillma Karnstein from 1974, and a Millarca Karnstein from 1994. The most shocking thing was that the dates on the photographs had correspond with the years the girls had allegedly gone missing.

They were all identical to her roommate, right down to the perfectly chiseled jawlines… not that she’d been staring at Carmilla’s jawline or anything. She needed to tell Laf and Perry about this. Unless Carmilla’s family has some weird obsession with anagrams, something fishy was going on, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

∞

“Okay, there is something seriously weird going on with Carmilla,” Laura said, storming into the room that Perry and Lafontaine shared.

“You mean besides all the flirting?” Laf raised an eyebrow as a smug smile appeared on their lips.

“What—she’s not—there’s no flirting!”  Lura rolled her eyes, offended that they would even suggest that her roommate’s relentless teasing had even remotely resembled flirting. “Anyway, she’s been acting really strange ever since she got here. She’s practically nocturnal, barely eats anything, And then there was the whole ‘prank’ with the blood and now she's giving me dead animal parts! And look at this!” Laura pulled the photographs out of her backpack. “Every 20 years, like clockwork, this girl shows up at Silas. She keeps flipping the letters around in her name like nobody’s ever heard of an anagram. I mean, it sounds crazy but she’s nocturnal, she’s so strong, she’s at least 80 years old, and she drinks blood—”

“Yeah, well we know she’s a vampire.” Laf interrupted her disorganized babbling. “I mean we’ve known that since the blood in the milk container, right?. Vampire, vampire, vampire. Yeah?” They turned around, waiting for Laura and Perry to respond.

“Or, you know, she could be a light-averse octogenarian with an extreme hemoglobin deficiency and... really good skin!” Perry chimed in.

But at that point, Laura was too far out the door. She had to talk to Carmilla.

∞

Laura barged into her own room and found Carmilla sprawled out on her bed, languidly sipping a dark liquid out of a straw and reading what looked like a very old book.

“Hey, cutie,” she said smoothly.

As much as she hated to admit it, the sight of Carmilla posed like that was making Laura’s mind wander into unsafe territories. But there was no time for that. She had an interrogation to do.

The words struggled to leave her mouth, so Laura stood there with her fists clenched and eventually blurted out, “You’re a vampire!”

Carmilla stared back with a bewildered expression on her face as if she was not sure how to respond. Either she was a really good actor, or Laura had caught her right where she wanted her. “So, Carmilla—or is it _Mircalla_ —you better tell me what’s going on right now.”

“Well, I was just reading a book, and then you came in and—”

“Oh, shut up. You know what I’m talking about.”

“No, actually, I don’t. Are you feeling alright? You should probably go see someone before you get even more sweaty and delusional. Wouldn’t want you going crazy and torching all my stuff in the middle of the night.”

Laura wanted to slap her sarcastic grin right off her face.

“Look. I’m not going to play this game with you. You tell me what’s going on, or I’ll go straight to the dean and tell her all about all of this.”

Carmilla laughed. “Like that will help with anything. You really are a naive, provincial girl... entirely too tightly wound... you really don’t know anything, do you?”

“I know that you’re more than eighty years old!” Laura said, reaching into her backpack. She pulled the photographs out of her backpack and looked Carmilla straight in the eyes. She caught the brief look of surprise in Carmilla’s deep eyes before her nonchalant attitude quickly returned.

She shrugged. “Alright, you really wanna know? Buckle up, creampuff. We’re gonna be in for a long night.” Laura crossed her arms and sat down on her bed. She should be alarmed at how close Carmilla was, considering she’d pretty much admitted to being a vampire for crying out loud, but the energy surging between the two of them felt nothing like fear, but something else that was entirely unexplainable.

She took a deep breath. “I was born Mircalla, daughter of the Count Karnstein in Styria, a duchy of Austria, in 1680. When I was eighteen, I attended a ball where I was murdered—”

“Wait. _Murdered ?!_ ” Laura gasped.

“Listen, do you want me to make light of my tragic backstory or not?” She asked, irritated at her interruption.

“Fine, go on.” Laura watched as Carmilla’s face relaxed and she continued.

Carmilla talked about her life for what seemed like hours, and her stories made Laura’s heart ache in the worst way possible. She told Laura all about meeting her mother—the dean, of course. So that’s what Carmilla meant about going to the dean being useless. She then told her about being used as a pawn in the dean’s evil scheme to kidnap and sacrifice girls for some strange ritual every twenty years, and how Carmilla tried her best to lure the girls _away_ from their certain doom whenever possible. Laura felt guilty for assuming the worst of her after learning that she was only trying to help. Nothing she’d heard so far, though, was as sad as when Carmilla began talking about Ell. She could hear both the fondness and sadness in the way Carmilla said the girl’s name.

“It was 1872 and the game started off just as it always did, only this time, nothing was a lie. We had planned to run away together. I had hoped then that she would be revealed to be my soulmate, but no numbers appeared on either of our wrists. It didn’t matter though. I loved her anyway, and vowed to love her for as long as she lived. But our time was short together. Maman found out, and my price for the disobedience was to watch Ell be taken away to some certain doom and to be sealed in a coffin of blood so that I may waste away my long centuries in the dark.”

Laura felt horrible. “Carm, I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t respond. Laura wasn’t sure what else to say, so she reached over and gently rested her hand on Carmilla’s knee. The two of you sat in silence for a moment.

“And you’ve never found your soulmate?” Laura asked. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to talk about it, but...”

“No, it’s okay. I just...” She shook her head. “I’ve met some nice girls since then, but none of them turned out to be the match. I had given up searching entirely until a few years ago. Your curly ginger friend accidentally summoned a fairy queen, and—”

“Whoa, whoa whoa! Hold up. First vampires, and now fairies? What is up with this school?! And _Perry?_ She’s got some explaining to do next time I see her. _”_

Carmilla huffed. “Will you please let me finish the story? Anyway, the fairy said something about me meeting my match. An ‘annoying, shrill of a girl.’”

Laura couldn’t help but laugh at the way she mocked the fairy’s voice in such a ridiculous, nasally tone.

“At that point, I didn’t believe her. I had given up on love, doomed to spend my life alone forever. But the other day, a mark appeared. The universe must be so cruel. I’m a monster. Who would want to spend forever with me?”

Forever. Laura’s heart was pounding. “Carm...” She had no idea what to say, so she inhaled deeply and lifted up her sleeve. Carmilla’s eyes widened when she saw the mark. She was frozen for a moment, until she slowly removed her bracelet on her left hand. There, on her pale wrist was a mark identical to Laura’s. She took her left hand in Laura’s right so that the marks were touching. “We’re soulmates.” Laura’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

Laura had expected to see relief on Carmilla’s face, but instead, Carmilla looked utterly broken and terrified. “Cupcake, I’m really sorry...”

Laura’s heart broke at the sound of Carmilla’s cracking voice. Did she really think that lowly of herself?

“No, no! Please don’t apologize,” she said.

“So you’re not ashamed of me?” She asked, Laura’s heart shattered even more.

“Not at all! But... that night I told you about my mark, and then asked about yours. You must have known by then, right? Why didn’t you say something?”

She looked so small with her shoulders drooped and her bangs covering her face.

“I... I don’t know, I guess I was scared. You didn’t sound too jazzed about having a soulmate in the first place, and I didn’t want to make it worse with the whole vampire thing.”

Laura sighed. “I guess that’s fair. Look, I should fill you in on my tragic backstory now that I know yours. When I was younger, my mother, she... she died when I was very young. Murdered, we think. We never got any answers.”

This was way harder to talk about than she had expected, but she was calmed by the way Carmilla inched closer to her and presses herself against Laura. She took a deep breath.

“That’s why I wanted to pursue journalism, actually,” Laura added. “But anyway, my parents knew that their time together would be short, and it pained me to see them counting down until the day they would find out which one of their lives would end. I dreaded having that happen to myself, or to someone I loved. So when the mark appeared, my worst fear came true. But I suppose that won’t be a problem, considering that, well, you’re a vampire, and...”

Laura lost her train of thought when she looked up to see tears welling up in Carmilla’s eyes. Whichever young-adult vampire romance novel that claimed vampires don’t cry was clearly incorrect.

“Hey. What’s wrong?” She asked.

The look on her face made Laura want nothing more than to wrap Carmilla up in her arms and never let her go. She’d been through so much pain and suffering that she had never deserved.

“Cupcake, I’ve spent three-hundred years thinking that I’d never find a soulmate. I’m stuck here, frozen in time, while the world changes and grows without me. People always move on and leave me behind. And now you’re here, and you—”

Laura finally gave into her urge to reach forward and pulled Carmilla into a tight embrace. She was surprised at Laura’s sudden advancement, but after a few seconds she felt Carmilla soften and wrap her arms around her too. Laura found herself nuzzling into Carmilla’s shoulder, and the next thing she knew Carmilla was gently stroking Laura’s hair. They stayed like that for a while, in each other’s arms, without a word escaping either of their mouths.

Finally, Laura broke the silence. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So, you’re my soulmate, huh?”

Laura’s head was still resting against Carmilla’s chest, and she could feel Carmilla’s laughter. It was amazing how well their bodies fit together. Like they were made for each other. And Laura had a million concerns running through her head. _Her soulmate was a vampire. The Dean was a vampire. She’ll have to be a vampire someday too. She’s going to have to break the news to her father. she'll probably have to drink blood (eew!)._  But in that moment, her concerns don’t really matter. Because Laura had forever to figure it out. And she’d have have Carmilla.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! You haven't seen the last of these two yet, so keep your eyes out for an epilogue in the near future. In the meantime, follow me on [tumblr](http://ukulelekatie.tumblr.com).


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